Were you aware that a staggering average of 1.2 million fraudulent checks enter the banking system every day and losses are growing 2.5% annually (source: American Bankers Association)?

If your business is still issuing paper checks, you may easily become part of those statistics.

And what a pain that would be - trying to work your way through unraveling the implications of a scammed check.

I have some great news for you!

There is an easy way to help prevent your business from becoming a victim of check fraud.

The solution is called Positive Pay.

POSITIVE PAY TO THE RESCUE

According to Wikipedia, "Positive pay is a service whereby the company electronically shares its check register of all written checks with the bank. The bank therefore will only pay checks listed in that register, with exactly the same specifications as listed in the register (amount, payee, serial number, etc.). This system dramatically reduces check fraud."

In order for this process to work, your bank needs to receive details about the checks you have written so they can compare it to the checks presented for them to clear.

Naturally, the details about the checks you have written could be manually created and uploaded to your bank.

However, this process should be automated to keep it fast and simple.

Even though millions of businesses use QuickBooks accounting software to issue their checks, there is no direct way to easily create a file of the checks you have written to upload to your bank. Unfortunately, there is no magic button within QuickBooks to tackle that task.

Their solution will provide sales reps (and customers too!) with access to current sales reports, dashboards, inventory, order and invoice information. Reps can also enter orders themselves as well if you want them to!

THE CRIK-IT PORTAL/CRM FOR SALES REPS

Here are some of the reports that your reps would have at their fingertips:

Year over year sales comparisons for a 3 year period

Monthly sales comparisons for the past 3 years

Reports by SKU, customer, rep or product line

And more...

The Crik-IT Portal/CRM can also help automate and streamline the administration of your sales reps in the following ways:

Complete remote access - no need for them to be inside QuickBooks itself

Lead and opportunity tracking

Order entry

Inventory availability

Here is a sample dashboard view from Crik-IT:

And here are samples of a few of the reports available for instant access:

FREE TRIAL FOR QUICKBOOKS DESKTOP OR QUICKBOOKS ONLINE

Crik-IT is compatible with both the desktop versions of QuickBooks (Pro, Premier and Enterprise) in addition to QuickBooks Online. You can grab your 30 day free trial today.

Take it for a test drive so you can get a deeper look at how it can solve common headaches when working with a team of sales reps.

PRICING FOR CRIK-IT

Crik-IT is offered in several different packages, which include:

Customer Service Package

Order Desk Package

Sales Force Package

Full Circle Package

For example, the Customer Service Package starts at $29/month for 1 user, and then an additional $15/month for additional users.

The SST stands for Superior Spreadsheet Technology, and what it means for you is that you can literally add spreadsheet like calculations to the following QuickBooks forms:

Invoices

Sales Orders

Quotes/Estimates

Purchase Orders

Credit Memos

Sales Receipts

HOW FORMCALC SST WORKS

Setting up calculations involves taking a "snapshot" of the QuickBooks form (Invoice, etc.) you want to work with, then entering spreadsheet formulas in it. From there, you will save the FormCalcSST template.

When ready, you then simply use a series of "hot keys" that will then call up the template you have created and put to work on a form within QuickBooks.

Let's say that you recently negotiated a sale (congratulations!), and your customer snagged some extended payment terms with you as part of the deal.

So, instead of paying you in your normal net 30 day terms, they are going to pay you with net 45 day terms (hopefully your profit margin covers this extra financing term!)

You go to create the invoice in QuickBooks, and quickly see there is no "net 45" day term in the list. So, you click the Add New option, and create the new terms that look like this:

and blast through the OK button to get this invoice out the door.

All seems to be good at this point, right?

THE AGING REPORT TELLS YOU SOMETHING DIFFERENT

Next week, you do a quick rundown of your accounts receivable aging report, and you see the invoice to this customer showing as overdue. Say what?

There is no way it is overdue at this point!

Well, QuickBooks thinks something different about it than you do.

HOW TO SET UP THE PAYMENT TERMS PROPERLY

QuickBooks would indeed show you the correct aging of this invoice - if you had done one additional thing when you set up the terms above.

And here is the thing:

In the original box above, the "net due in" was not changed from 0 to 45 days. So, QuickBooks would see this invoice overdue on the very first day you sent it, even though the terms "net 45" appeared on the invoice.

In the updated box below, the "net due in" is correctly set up to match the applicable terms.

Once you get in and reset the definition of the payment terms (quick shortcut to access them - click Lists > Customer and Vendor Profile Lists > Terms List). QuickBooks will then properly age the invoice on your reports!

It was mid-afternoon, and the controller did a quick check of his e-mail to see if anything came in.

An e-mail from the CEO had arrived, so he opened it.

The e-mail contained instructions to send a wire transfer of $100,000 to cover a deposit for a deal the CEO was working on.

Knowing that the CEO was regularly involved in various transactions, the controller picked up the phone and called their bank to get the wire transfer underway to avoid any delays with the deal in progress.

The process with the bank was pretty simple, as wire transfers were sent regularly.

A couple hours later, the controller got a call from the CEO about another matter, and the controller confirmed with the CEO that he had sent the wire transfer he requested.

"What wire transfer?" said the CEO

"The wire transfer you e-mailed me about earlier this afternoon", said the controller

"I didn't send you any e-mails asking for a wire transfer to be made", said the CEO.

Silence followed.

Hauntingly dead silence.

The controller just realized he had been scammed by a well crafted and well executed e-mail.

“We have seen social engineering losses for a number of our clients ranging from small business to publicly traded companies. This is becoming common and businesses need to be sure to validate each transaction carefully. Insurance is now available for this situation, however it is not automatically included on most policies and must be added by endorsement. Check with your insurance advisor to see if you have this coverage” Lou Antonelli, Vice President, Practice Leader Risk Consulting, Oswald Companies.

Whatever it is being called, it could mean a substantial loss to your business, just as the $100,000 was to the business above. That money is long gone, and isn't coming back any time soon.

Social engineering losses are just one form of cyber insurance coverage, as are system damage, system business interruption, cyber crime, multimedia liability and a host of other potential issues.

As businesses get ever more interconnected, it's essential to talk with your insurance agent to determine if this type of coverage is a good idea for your business. I've had that conversation with my agent recently, and I hope you take the time to do so as well...

Learn how to project your business cash flow in QuickBooks for a 6 week period with the video tutorial below:

WHAT ARE YOU USING FOR CASH FLOW PROJECTIONS?

If you're not using the QuickBooks cash flow projector, I'm curious as to what app or program you may be using to see how the upcoming cash flow looks for your business. Are you using Excel? PlanGuru? Something else?